The present invention relates generally to support bars or brackets for electric heating elements in bake ovens, and more particularly, to a support bar or bracket having standoffs to prevent the bottom of the bake oven cavity from touching the electric heating element.
Conventional bake ovens have electric heating elements to produce heat to bake or broil food set in a cavity of the oven. It is typical to install an upper and lower heating element inside the oven cavity. The upper heating element is suspended immediately below the top wall of the oven cavity. The lower heating element is mounted above the bottom wall of the oven cavity. More recently, it has been known to install the lower heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. Installing the heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity improves the appearance of the oven and makes the oven easier to clean. However, a problem occurs when installing the heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. When the bottom wall reaches increased temperatures as a result of activating the heating element, the bottom wall of the oven cavity expands and warps. This may cause the bottom wall of the oven cavity to gravitate down and touch the heating element mounted below the bottom wall. Thus, for heating elements mounted below the bottom wall of an oven cavity, a need exists to prevent the bottom wall from touching the heating element when the wall expands and warps.
FIG. 1 shows a prior heater element support assembly 10 that attempts to solve the above problem. The support assembly 10 includes a heating element 12, four support brackets 14, four steel rods 16 and two legs 18. The assembly 10 is installed below the bottom wall of the cavity of a bake oven. The heating element 12 has electrical terminals 20 at each end. The terminals 20 attach to electrical receptacles (not shown) located at the back wall of the oven. The heating element 12 is contoured to have two serpentine sections S1 and S2 and a straight longitudinal section L1. The serpentine sections S1 and S2 of the heating element 12 are supported by the four support brackets 14. The longitudinal section L1 is supported by two legs 18. To prevent the bottom wall of the bake oven from touching the heating element 12, the assembly requires four steel rods 16 and two legs 18. The four steel rods 16 are mounted to the top of the support brackets 14 by crimping the rods 16 to slots in the support bracket. The two legs 18 are mounted on the straight longitudinal section L1 of the heating element 12 by crimping the legs to the heating element 12.
Although the above assembly will assist in preventing the bottom of the oven cavity from contacting the heating element, there is a further need to reduce the amount of material and parts used to perform this preventative function. The manufacture and sale of bake ovens is a high-volume industry. In such an industry, there is a continued need to reduce material costs and the number of parts for bake ovens. Moreover, there is a need to reduce assembly costs in fabricating a heating assembly. The assembly described in FIG. 1 takes excessive time to fabricate and assemble given the number of parts and the need to crimp the steel rods 16 and legs 18. Thus, it would be helpful to have a simple, readily installed support means which reliably supports the heating element while protecting the heating element from coming in contact with the bottom wall of the oven cavity.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.
To that end, the present invention includes an apparatus supporting an electrical heating element installed in an oven and extending generally horizontally therethrough from one side of the oven to the opposite side thereof for heating an oven cavity to bake or broil food set inside the oven cavity. The oven cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The apparatus and heating element are located below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. The apparatus includes at least one support bracket extending horizontally in the oven and has a plurality of openings formed therein each of which is generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized for the heating element to be installed in the openings. The support bracket also has a plurality of standoffs generally presented in the upward vertical direction and having a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the oven cavity from coming in contact with the heating element.
The support bracket may also have a plurality of legs to allow the main body of the support bracket to generally stand apart from a bottom surface of the oven. The heating element may include electrical terminals that are connected to a circuit at the back wall of the oven. In one embodiment, a top portion of the plurality of standoffs are in a spaced apart relationship with the bottom wall of the oven cavity when the oven is turned off.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a bracket supporting an electrical heating element installed in an oven and extending generally horizontally therethrough from one side of the oven to an opposite side thereof for heating the oven to cook food. The heating element has a sinuous shape and has a plurality of horizontally extending segments extending longitudinally in the oven. The bracket has a plurality of openings formed therein each of which is generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized for a portion of the heating element to be received in the opening. The oven has an oven cavity wherein the oven cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The bracket and heating element are located below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. The bracket further has a plurality of standoffs generally presented in the upward vertical direction. The standoffs have a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the oven cavity from coming in contact with the heating element when the bottom wall expands at an increased temperature.
In a further embodiment, the present invention is an oven to bake or broil food. The oven includes a cavity, an electrical heating element and at least one bracket. The cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The electrical heating element is located below the bottom wall of the cavity and extends generally horizontally in the oven from one side of the oven to an opposite side of the oven to heat the oven cavity. The bracket supports the heating element and also extends horizontally in the oven. The bracket has a plurality of openings and a plurality of standoffs. The plurality of openings are formed in the bracket and are generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized to receive the heating element. The plurality of standoffs are also generally presented in the upward vertical direction but have a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the cavity from coming in contact with the heating element.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to represent each embodiment, or every aspect of the present invention. This is the purpose of the figures and detailed description that follows.